# Gemma 3 12B vs GLM-5.2

> GLM-5.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 50.9 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 29× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

- Canonical page: https://noometry.com/compare/gemma-3-12b-vs-glm-5-2
- Last updated: 2026-10-10
- Shared benchmarks: 21

## Summary

- They share 21 benchmarks with published results for both. Gemma 3 12B scores higher in 0 categories and GLM-5.2 in 9 categories; 9 gaps are clear of the uncertainty.
- The widest gap is in math, where GLM-5.2 leads 55.4 to 21.0.
- The biggest single-benchmark swing is OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025: 16.7% for Gemma 3 12B and 86.4% for GLM-5.2.
- Gemma 3 12B is cheaper at $0.05 / $0.15 per million input/output tokens, against $1.40 / $4.40 for GLM-5.2.
- GLM-5.2 accepts more context: 1M tokens versus 131K.

## Snapshot

| | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Provider | Google | Z.ai (Zhipu) |
| Noometry Index | 31.8 | 50.9 |
| Rank | 255 | 38 |
| Context | 131K | 1M |
| Input $/M | $0.05 | $1.40 |
| Output $/M | $0.15 | $4.40 |
| Weights | Open | Open |

## Coding

- Gemma 3 12B: 31.2 (#276)
- GLM-5.2: 50.9 (#37)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| SciCode | 17.4% | 50.5% |
| LMArena Coding | 1281 | 1484 |
| SWE-bench Verified | — | 78.7% |
| DeepSWE | — | 43.8% |
| FrontierCode | — | 24.5% |
| LMArena WebDev | — | 1604 |
| WeirdML | — | 70.1% |
| ALE-Bench | — | 1,047 |

## Agentic & Tool Use

- Gemma 3 12B: 25.3 (#101)
- GLM-5.2: 31.6 (#63)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Berkeley Function Calling Leaderboard | 30.4% | — |
| τ²-bench Banking | — | 37.1% |
| PostTrainBench | — | 31.7% |
| GBAEval | — | 0% |
| Vending-Bench 2 | — | 8,314 |

## Reasoning

- Gemma 3 12B: 15.2 (#307)
- GLM-5.2: 42.1 (#46)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| CritPt | 0% | 20.9% |
| Chess Puzzles | 0% | 21% |
| LMArena Hard Prompts | 1309 | 1480 |
| DTBench | 48.8% | 93.6% |
| LMCA | 4.5% | 45.8% |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 123.49 | 151.76 |
| ARC-AGI-2 | — | 22.8% |
| SimpleBench | — | 58.8% |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | — | 62.6% |
| NYT Connections (extended) | — | 74.3% |
| ARC-AGI-1 | — | 77% |
| EBR-Bench | — | 9.5% |
| Mystery Game Puzzles | — | 19% |
| Surface Evolver Bench | — | 55.6% |

## Math

- Gemma 3 12B: 21.0 (#273)
- GLM-5.2: 55.4 (#35)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME 2024-2025 | 16.7% | 86.4% |
| LMArena Math | 1307 | 1482 |
| FrontierMath (Tiers 1-3) | — | 59.2% |
| FrontierMath Tier 4 | — | 29.3% |
| MathArena Final-Answer Competitions | — | 67.6% |
| ProofBench | — | 35% |

## Knowledge

- Gemma 3 12B: 26.5 (#250)
- GLM-5.2: 57.1 (#36)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| GPQA Diamond | 39.5% | 91.9% |
| LMArena Expert | 1248 | 1484 |
| SimpleQA Verified | — | 34.2% |
| Vectara Hallucination Rate | 4.4% | — |

## Multimodal

- Gemma 3 12B: —
- GLM-5.2: —

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| MindCube | 46.7% | — |

## Multilingual

- Gemma 3 12B: 45.9 (#160)
- GLM-5.2: 56.0 (#25)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Non-English | 1318 | 1459 |
| LMArena German | 1370 | 1470 |
| LMArena Russian | 1335 | 1467 |
| LMArena Chinese | — | 1518 |
| LMArena French | — | 1476 |
| LMArena Japanese | — | 1451 |
| LMArena Korean | — | 1445 |
| LMArena Spanish | — | 1477 |

## Instruction Following

- Gemma 3 12B: 68.8 (#179)
- GLM-5.2: 77.1 (#32)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Instruction Following | 1299 | 1465 |

## Long Context

- Gemma 3 12B: 40.0 (#157)
- GLM-5.2: 45.3 (#43)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Longer Query | 1317 | 1479 |

## Writing & Preference

- Gemma 3 12B: 47.7 (#205)
- GLM-5.2: 70.7 (#20)

| Benchmark | Gemma 3 12B | GLM-5.2 |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena Text | 1334 | 1470 |
| LMArena Creative Writing | 1331 | 1465 |
| EQ-Bench Creative Writing | 1126 | 1757 |
| LMArena Multi-Turn | 1334 | 1468 |
| EQ-Bench 4 | — | 1222 |

## FAQ

### Is Gemma 3 12B better than GLM-5.2?

GLM-5.2 is the stronger model overall, scoring 50.9 to 31.8 on the Noometry Index. Gemma 3 12B costs 29× less per token, which makes it the better buy when GLM-5.2's lead doesn't matter for your workload.

### Which is cheaper, Gemma 3 12B or GLM-5.2?

Gemma 3 12B is cheaper. It lists at $0.05 per million input tokens and $0.15 per million output tokens; GLM-5.2 lists at $1.40 and $4.40.

### Is Gemma 3 12B or GLM-5.2 better for coding?

GLM-5.2 scores higher on coding benchmarks: 50.9 versus 31.2 in the Noometry coding category.

### Which has the bigger context window?

GLM-5.2 does, with 1M tokens against 131K.

### How many benchmarks do Gemma 3 12B and GLM-5.2 share?

21 benchmarks have published results for both models. Gemma 3 12B has 24 scored results on Noometry and GLM-5.2 has 50.